Innovation for grand challenges: the evolving role of service providers in Open Innovation ecosystems
通过定性实证研究，识别了开放创新服务提供者在应对重大挑战时的九种协作实践，并提出了包含价值创造、价值获取和价值共享的三重框架，揭示其从促进者向战略协调者转变的角色。
Grand challenges such as climate change, resource scarcity, and public health pressures persist despite technological and economic progress, calling for collaborative, multi-actor approaches that leverage knowledge, technology, and innovation. Within this context, open innovation represents a key paradigm for fostering ecosystems that enable resource exchange and collaboration across organizational boundaries. While prior research has extensively examined the roles of large firms, SMEs, and public actors in this context, the evolving contributions of open innovation service providers in this field remain insufficiently understood. This study investigates how service providers are adapting to address grand challenges within open innovation ecosystems through qualitative empirical research. The study identifies nine collaborative practices and introduces a threefold framework, encompassing value creation, value capture, and value sharing processes, that helps in understanding their role. The results show that open innovation service providers are transitioning from facilitators to strategic orchestrators, enabling new forms of ecosystem resilience and collective impact. This work advances theoretical understanding and offers practical insights into how more inclusive, adaptive, and impact-oriented open innovation ecosystems can be mobilized to address grand challenges. • The study advances value management theory in open innovation (OI) by introducing value sharing as a distinct and complementary dimension to value creation and value capture, offering a richer understanding of collaborative dynamics in grand challenge–oriented innovation ecosystems. • By systematically mapping open innovation service providers and their practices, the study positions them as central ecosystem actors that move beyond facilitation toward strategic orchestration of Open Innovation initiatives. • The analysis show how service providers contribute across value creation, value capture, and value sharing processes, highlighting their critical role in enabling collective action and ecosystem resilience when addressing grand societal challenges. • The paper develops a structured framework that categorizes service providers' roles and practices, providing actionable guidance for senior managers and policymakers to align open innovation initiatives with organizational strategies while addressing grand challenges.